OLD oils

[RRunner]

New here, just registered and have a question about old oils.

I got a case of Sears 10W 30 motor oil in the CAN, yes can, good thing my dad still has an old time oil tube.

The oil is rated SE/SF, I have never seen a rating that old. Wonder what kind of ZINC it has.

In with the case was also some old plastic bottles of valvoline rated SG. Interesting enough the valvoline said "Energy Conserving II" on it.

I thought the energy conserving label was a new thing and here this oil is old and it is a "II"...

1) Is this oil still good to use? Plan to use it in a '69 440 motor.

2) What about this engery conserving II? I see oil nowadays that says energy conserving and I would have thought II would have been newer..

 

[Johnny]

I will let one of the resident tribologist try to explain ECII and EC, gets to confusing for me.

I would not use the Sears oil as SE/SF is way out of date and back then there is no telling who made it for them or how good it is. The Valvoline SG might not be to bad. It's loaded with zinc. Also the Valvoline SG is a Group I base stocked oil so it's very old technology but would be good for short runs in your 440.

to BITOG

 

[Vincent_Vega]

Personally.... I would not use it. I would go to walmart and get some newer oil with the visc that your engine calls for. My .02.

 

[jaredyost]

I agree. Oil does have a shelf life. I read a general rule of thumb is roughly 3 years.

 

[glennc]

There used to be an Energy Conserving spec which was I believe for a fuel savings of 1.5% compared with a reference oil and Energy Conserving II which was 2.7% If I'm not mistaken they mainly just meant the oils were thinner: I think (going from memory) that most 10W-30s at the time were Energy Conserving and 5w30s were usually ECII, but it also depended on the specific oil. The new EC spec is much more involved and I haven't been able to find much info on it, but I believe it relies more on friction modifiers that will decrease friction compared with unmodified oils of the SAME viscosity.

I think you could safely use that old oil if you mixed it a little at a time or did short OCIs, after all it worked fine back when it was new and engines did not immediately grind to a halt, however the more conservative approach would be to ditch it, especially if it may not have been ideally stored.

 

[Panzerman]

I think oil "probably"does have a shelf life, but I think more on the lines of 10 years, maybe more, oil producers will never say, but i have yet to see oil go bad in the jug. I would go to Walmart and get some new and improved oil, oil is 10 times better now then back then. I wouldnt dump the oil, list it on Ebay, alot of people buy up old oil for Nosalgic decorations. I have some old Pennzoil w/z-7 in my living room on a crate. SE/SF is great for two stroke wet clutchs, its just not the best for a car engine. Your 69' may have spec'd that oil back in 1969, but thats only because todays oil wasnt around yet.

 

[Fordiesel69]

Older briggs & stratton engines on lawnmower cost like $35 to rebuild. My dad always ran [censored] old oils like that in them and the engines were not worn much at all inside when I rebuilt them. They were very dirty though. I would just use it in lawnmowers. Even if you have new engines.

On the other hand, my dad religiously changed his oil every 3 - 3.5k on his 85 Crown Vic, and man was it ever tarred and gunked up when we changed the valve cover gaskets and oil pan gasket. Most oils that were used was SF, SG, and some SH towards its later years. It never saw SJ. Then in 99' my uncle had to get a new jasper engine for his 5.0L lincoln and after it had 112k, the

 

[addyguy]

Oil in cans are a collectors item now. Don't want it? Sell it!

I wouldn't use oil that old - its from the early 1980's....might use the SG Valvoline, but would mix it with newer oil like others have said.

 

[RRunner]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll sit it on the shelf until I deside what to do with it. I have 10 cans and that was 2 oil changes for the 440. I thought the oil might be nice for the zinc levels in the flat tappet cam engine.

I've always run castrol GTX 20w-50 in this motor but I put a new CAM in 3yrs ago and just lost a lobe last July with under 1000 miles on the engine. Then I learned of the ZINC thing, don't know if beieve it or not, but I figured hey I'd try to find a high ZINC oil just to take that factor out of the equation..

I was thinking of runnig this oil for the first two changes while I looked around for the new oil. Sounds like that is out.

I was thinking about the new Castrol Syntec 20W-50 FOR CLASSIC CARS but I cannot find any VOA on it.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

Are there any numbers/dates anywhere on that old oil?